Rendez-vous reveals Europe is buying into Gallic humor

PARIS — At this year’s Paris Rendez-vous, the French film showcase backed by Gaul’s Unifrance, all eyes were on filmgoers in Germany.

Bowing Jan. 5. on 150 copies, Gallic B.O. phenom “Intouchables” (Untouchable) took a healthy €3.45 million ($4.4 million) from Teutonic auds in its first week; German distrib Senator raised the print run to 450; 32 more play ski resorts.

Those strong figures came as a Unifrance report, released at the Jan. 11-16 RDV, confirmed that 10 French comedies, topped by Dany Boon’s “Nothing to Declare” and Francois Ozon’s “Potiche,” ranked among the 20 French-language top theatrical grossers outside France in 2011. “Distributors are now saying ‘Maybe we need to trust our instincts and open up,'” Gaumont’s Cecile Gaget said at the RDV.

But the mart’s 440 foreign distribs — a record attendance per Unifrance prexy Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre — put potential international comedy breakouts high on shopping lists.

One candidate was EuropaCorp’s “Love Lasts Three Years,” helmed by Gallic novelist Frederic Beigbeder, centering on a wisecracking social gadfly who falls for his cousin’s wife (Louise Bourgoin); another is dramedy “The Players,” with Jean Dujardin (“The Artist”) co-writing and co-directing, being sold by Wild Bunch. Pic reportedly had buyers in stitches.

Sales agents were talking up comedies with more urgency. Other Angle’s Olivier Albou reported first sales — Switzerland (Frenetic) and Benelux (Victory) — on buddy cop dramedy “The Other Side of the Tracks,” toplining Omar Sy (“Intouchables”).